mrben said:
I don't know whether this is just urban myth (rural myth?) but I heard that if you hit a deer, you _weren't_ allowed to take it home for food, but if you came across a recently deceased animal, you could. (I presume the theory being that people wouldn't intentionally hit animals for food)
Yes, if you hit it, and take it, it's poaching. But if you find it after someone else has hit it, it isn't. Or so I've heard.
Friend of mine lived in Scotland and a friend of his hit a deer. He stopped and pndered whether to chance it, for decent venison supper, when a police car happened along. The policeman said "were you going to take that home?" "oh, no, officer, no, not at all" blustered the chap. "Great!" said the copper, and hoiked it into the back of his car....
In another case (a bit OT) a landowner tipped the police off that there were fishermen taking salmon illegally from his river and if he came now, he'd catch 'em. Copper turned up and drove carefully and quietly down the track from the road, but with blue lights on, so the fisherman were long gone. Alas, the copper was later found to have a freezer full of salmon...